Bruce W.
Yelp
I'll grant you this: Flame's dry aged ribeye has that classic dry aged ribeye taste that we all know and love. Though, I wouldn't say it was cooked to perfection. For the price paid, one would expect a perfect steak. Frankly, I've had better steaks at much lower-priced establishments. If you're going to go through the effort of dry aging meats in-house, you should at least pay the same mind to how you sear it.
Relative to price, I'd almost call this a one-star experience, but you earn one additional star for in-house dry aging. It was the only thing you got right.
I took my wife to Flame on our anniversary last April. Unfortunately, it was Prom night at some local school, so we shared the establishment with young know-nothings who soiled the ambiance. I won't fault the establishment for that, however. They have to take their money where they can get it. It did make it feel like an Outback Steakhouse or an Applebees, though. Not a fan of "fine dining" surrounded by other peoples' kids. Why not hide all the kiddos in the basement? Put them at the kids table where they belong. The adults are spending serious money here for a meal they might've returned for, and we don't need daddy's credit card to pay for the one-time experience.
I suppose my wife and I will just have to choose a new anniversary date or forever risk dining alongside annoying prom queens. I digress.
Flame's ambiance would've been disappointing for me without the teeny boppers, anyway, because I hit my head on a low ceiling getting up from my table. Who buttered up the building codes inspector to get those low ceilings approved? Nothing like date night conversations while contending with a throbbing painful knob on my head.
Of course, that was upstairs in the side seating, which followed our attempt at eating in the basement. It was the end of last April, and not exactly hot out. But the basement? It felt like Hades down there, so after sweating out all my moisture within a minute at our first table, we asked to be relocated upstairs.
Up the stairs, hit my head, and commence a three hour service time for steaks.
Three. Hours.
Let's see, you sear the steaks roughly two minutes per side... wait a minute, I must have miscalculated, because 2min+2min does not equal 180min. What the heck happened?
Well, nothing like a painful bump on the head, a headache, and a three hours of listening to a bunch of young dummies loudly talking about nothing to really make a marginally prepared steak feel not quite worth $300+.
Where's the value proposition?
Everyone hypes this place up. Surely it's better than my awful experience, right? I'd expect more for ticket prices like these. The quality fell very short of similar chain establishments such as Flemmings or Ruth's Chris. I expect way more from an artisanal establishment such as Flame.
I suppose I'll give them one more try, just in case it was an off night. Maybe I'll update this post after that - though I have my doubts.
